Airtime Is Stuck on the Runway, Despite Celebrity Friends and a Viral Ad

Sometimes it’s not who you know, it’s what you know. Just ask Airtime, the impossibly well-connected video-chat service that can’t figure out how to grow traffic sustainably. Despite star-studded, well-financed promotional efforts, Airtime’s user base dropped by nearly half during the month of July, according to tracking firm AppData.

Last month, we wrote about Airtime’s slick, quirky, carefully crafted promotional video, created by the viral marketing powerhouse Portal A. The video, which included a cameo from actor Kurt Russell, is only one reason the company has been lavished with attention since it launched in June.

For its debut press event, Airtime successfully solicited help from celebrities like Jimmy Fallon, Martha Stewart, Snoop Dogg, Alicia Keys and Jim Carrey. Co-founder Sean Parker helps run a venture fund, is buddy-buddy with Mark Zuckerberg and used to be president of Facebook, while his fellow co-founder Shawn Fanning invented Napster, the pioneering and once hugely popular music-sharing system. Investors include well-regarded angel investor Ron Conway and top-shelf venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

And yet Airtime’s golden connections have not converted into users, as the New York Times Bits blog points out. Airtime had 200,000 monthly active users at the start of July; by the end of the month it was down to 110,000 monthly active users, despite launching the viral video in the interim. Endorsers like MC Hammer tweeted the spot and shared it on Facebook, and it racked up 180,000 views, but that apparently wasn’t enough to help grow Airtime’s user base.

Airtime also saw limited gains from its star-studded launch, which spiked active daily users to 60,000, according to AppData. Within a week, that number fell back to 20,000, where it has mostly stayed.

Airtime declined to comment to Wired Business. An Airtime executive wouldn’t comment to the Times on the AppData figures but said the service was planning changes to broaden its appeal.

Portal A, meanwhile, says it’s proud of its work and client.

“We’re really happy that the video drove new potential users to the site, demonstrated the product in a fun and interesting way, and got people talking about Airtime and how it’s innovating in the space,” says Portal A partner Zach Blume. “They’re building for the long haul, and we’re excited to see what’s next for them.”

Investors are no doubt eager to see what’s next for Airtime, too. They put more than $30 million into the company, which given AppData’s current estimates, works out to around $272 for each monthly active user.

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